Teaching the Civil Rights Movement: Educators' Racial Literacy in Professional Development Settings

• In Event: Promoting Equitable Social Studies Education

Abstract

This study explores how educators’ (social studies teachers and school librarians) participation in a virtual professional development setting informs their teaching of the Civil Rights Movement and how their varying levels of racial literacy impact the efficacy of this professional development. In this paper, we ask the following questions: How is teacher talk within professional development designed to inform and expand the teaching of the Civil Rights Movement informed by participant’s racialized identities? And, how do participants' racial literacies impact their experience in a Civil Rights Movement-focused professional development session?

Authors

• Daniella Ann Cook, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Jenna Spiering, University of South Carolina - Columbia